Looking at the next episode coming up in the UKTV Drama Doctor Who episodes I was expecting part one of Genesis of the Daleks – but tonight they seem to be skipping straight to part one of Revenge of the Cybermen… Strange decision to drop the Dalek story, as it’s always been regarded as one of the classics and looking at the upcoming episode list they are showing all the subsequent stories in order, unless of course it’s a repeat of the problems with the Terry Nation estate again that nearly scuppered the return of the monsters in the new series…
Category Archives: Doctor Who
Nebula Award Nominations
The nominations for the Nebula Awards are out, including a nod to Steven Moffat and Doctor Who, with Blink nominated in the script category. What is perhaps a surprise though is the inclusion, alongside Blink and a selection of major film scripts, of the script for an internet only Star Trek fan film, with a nomination for the Star Trek: New Voyages episode World Enough And Time.
“Excuse me, have you seen a Blowfish driving a sports car?”
There have been a couple of sequences from the first episode of the new series of Torchwood, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, floating around the internet, which do seem to show the changes to the programme for the new series, and perhaps much more of a humorous spin than we’ve been used to. Obviously there are going to be spoilers watching the clips – the second one especially, so be warned before you hit play!
The first clip is the opening sequence, featuring the whole team and a Blowfish in a sports car…
The second clip comes from later on in the episode, and features the main guest star for the episode, James Marsters, and be warned again, a bit of a spoiler…
For those in the UK, the full episode can be seen this coming Wednesday, January 16th, at 9pm on BBC2. It looks like those wanting the pre-watershed repeat will have to wait a whole week, although apparently the usual slot for those will be 7pm on the day after the full version, also on BBC2.
Torchwood Countdown
There is now only a week before the new series of Torchwood begins on BBC2. SFX are running a series of articles on their website as a precursor to the new series, including today an interview with head writer Chris Chibnall.
That article, along with the reports of the press preview showing of the first episode before Christmas certainly seems to indicate a definite change for the new series with the production team apparently having taken on a lot of the criticisms levelled at the first outing for the programme last year. A number of the reviews I have seen have said that even if you gave up on series one, series two may be worth a look.
Despite the distinctly variable quality last series, it looks like guest stars were queuing up. According to the Chris Chibnall interview, James Marsters (best known as Spike in Buffy and Angel) who guest stars in the first episode wanted to be in the programme, and Alan Dale, who is forever associated with Neighbours in my mind, but has done loads of genre stuff now, apparently phoned up asking if they had anything going too, and has a guest star role later in the series.
In other Doctor Who news, this week would have been the one hundredth birthday of William Hartnell, the first actor to play the Doctor. Hat tip to Outpost Gallifrey for the news that in celebration of the anniversary, the Plymouth Who group are holding an event on Sunday to mark Hartnell’s life and work which includes a screening of The War Machines, and a question and answer session with Anneke Wills who made her début in the story. More details about this and other events the group holds are on their website.
Very British Sci-Fi
It is perhaps an indication of the renewed popularity of Doctor Who, that UKTV Drama has kicked off a new year with a daily teatime showing of some of the classic shows not in the omnibus format in which they used to show the programme at weekends, but as it was originally made in 25 minute episodes.
The one difference though is that whereas in the past they always started at the start of the colour era, with Jon Pertwee stories, this time they’re kicking off with Robot, Terrance Dicks reworking of King Kong – probably most obvious in the final episode – that marked the beginning of Tom Baker in the title role.
Although there are some really obvious bits of model work at times, it’s still quite an entertaining watch, including some classic bits of script that mark it out as very British, such as the conversation between the Brigadier and the Doctor about how Great Britain was the only possible choice as the country to hold the nuclear secrets of the superpowers…
So why start out at this point? The answer is fairly simple if you look at what comes up later in the first Tom Baker season. After The Ark in Space next week we then get a run of classic monsters.
First off is The Sontaran Experiment – monsters who are going to appear again in the next season of the new Doctor Who. Then we get the classic and fan favourite Genesis of the Daleks where the Doctor is sent back in time to destroy the Daleks before they are even created – where Terry Nation makes absolutely no attempt to hide who he based the creatures on – and where the Doctor makes a fateful decision. After that we have the Revenge of the Cybermen, which it has to be said, isn’t regarded by a classic by a lot of fans, and finally that season finished off with the first and only appearance of the Zygons – favourite monster of the current occupier of the TARDIS, David Tennant.
So compared to the modern series it may have some really dodgy special effects, and wobbly sets, but this was the era that was enough to inspire most of the current production team, and of course David Tennant himself, to the extent that more than a decade after it’s demise they brought back the series that is so successful now. If alternatively you’re only interested in “nu Whoâ€? as SFX christened it, you’ve only got a couple of weeks to wait before Torchwood returns on 16th January – this time with a pre-watershed re-edit to help in those homes where the content of the show was ruled unsuitable for the younger Who obsessives and they were banned from watching – and Doctor Who itself is due to return for a fourth series in the now familiar late spring/early summer run.